MINISTERIAL ALLIANCE IN SAN FRANCISCO.
By W. N. G.
Josiah Strong, D.D., of New York, tarried in San Francisco after the adjournment of the Christian Endeavor Convention, apparently to give his Evangelical Alliance ideas practical shape. He had addressed the ministers during the convention on the subject of establishing local alliances having for their object the dissemination of reading matter setting forth the duties and responsibilities of citizens. The end in view was the purification of politics, which is fast coming to the front as the one great purpose of so-called evangelical religion. On July 26 the ministers of the evangelical churches held a union meeting and determined to begin a campaign bearing on “good citizenship.” The churches were well represented, and Dr. Strong again gave his ideas concerning the proposition. He, being the secretary and leading spirit of the National Alliance, naturally expected the San Francisco organization to be connected with the national body; but the clergymen present decided that if a local alliance were formed it should be, for some time at least, independent of the national body. It was also decided to ask the various congregations to elect delegates to constitute an executive committee. The Examiner report says that “as part of the plan of campaign it was proposed to divide the city into districts for the distribution of educational pamphlets instructing public officials concerning their duties, and the citizens in regard to what they should do to control the ballot in opposition to the corrupt element in politics.” Thus we see that such alliances mean the assumption on the part of professed ministers of the Gospel to dictate to civil officers how they shall perform their duties; also an attempt to dictate to the people—to such of the people as will cater to the scheme—how they may control the ballot. Now there are two things that are generally conceded: First, that the law gives the proper instruction to civil officers, and secondly, that “the corrupt element in politics” is that element, of whatsoever profession, that seeks to “control the ballot.” Then the assumption of such an alliance as is contemplated by these ministers is to place themselves above the law in the matter of giving instruction to civil officers; and by their scheming to control the ballot, they logically lower themselves to the ranks of the “corrupt element in politics.” As we have heretofore shown, this ministerial alliance idea was agitated at the late Christian Endeavor Convention, and the plan, as outlined by Dr. Strong in a public address, is to utilize the young men of that society in furthering the object of the alliance, namely, a general manipulation of political affairs. Thus the seed sown by those in charge of this feature of the convention is already taking root,9and the religio-political machine is already being constructed. How it will work is easy to forecast: It always has been, and always will be, that the mingling of religion and politics tends to religious debauchery and political tyranny. The worst politics the world ever has known has been that which was swayed by a power professing the Christian religion. The Word of God defines the union of the two as fornication on the part of the church and drunkenness on the part of the State. W. N. G.